A California man must pay more than $1.2 million after pleading guilty to mail fraud in a scheme that involved use of a fake staffing firm, the US Department of Justice reported.

Darrell Pike of Hesperia, California, had pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud in October 2022, the department reported. He also must serve three months in prison followed by three years of supervised release in addition to the $1.2 million in restitution and forfeiture.

“Mr. Pike deeply regrets the harm he caused to his former colleagues and to his family. He acknowledged his wrongdoing from the very beginning,” the defendant’s attorney Brian Gurwitz said in a statement to SIA.

Pike was the general manager of a company in Ontario, California, that was a subsidiary of a supply and service company based in Wilmington, Massachusetts, according to the department.

It said Pike submitted false invoices to his employer on behalf of a fake temporary staffing firm called Consumer Information Systems. He then caused his employer to pay money which was deposited into a bank account that he controlled.

USA v. Pike, US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, 1:2022-cr-10096-MJJ-1.